Monday, November 10, 2014

The weekend that was...

Happy Monday ya'll...

Hope that this past break from work was wonderful and you raised all kinds of hell and did some memorable things and that Facebook's servers exploded due to the amount of awesome you attempted to post...

Things were actually pretty tame around Greenview Manor the last few days. K.A.W and I have pretty much been go, go, go since our nuptials a few weeks ago. So facing a weekend with literally nothing to do... we made a list...of things to do. This list was comprised of various and sundry things of mostly a "home improvement" nature...

Luckily for me, K.A.W follows my mantra that "All work and no play make Banjo go something, something..." That something is ill and in need of forest fun out in PisgahGod'sCountry, USA. So we came to an accord, and with that the Great Compromise of 2014 was signed into action...

"K.A.W will have Banjo for unlimited housework as long as he is allowed to play in the woods for at least some of the day."

C.A 2014 et. al. and so on....

The plus side is the K.A.W works a 5 day week and I only a 4 day week. This leaves me with all of Friday to do as I wish. Now this is a double edged sword... Do I expedite Saturday's radness and knock a chunk out of the list on Friday while she is at work? Or do I get rad on Friday and save Saturday to do all the chores?... hmmmm..

Friday:

Well I bunked off house work and went for a road ride up on the Parkway....

It felt great to get back on the road. I havent done a proper road ride in a while, and with so many fast, twisty descents, panoramic views, and leg-exploding climbs AVLUSA is really a roadie's paradise. I dont know if you count 28 miles as a "proper" road ride though. I like to hit at least 30 miles but my time was limited and hopefully I made up for it with all the climbing I did.

After that it was off to the bank to do some financial-adult things. This whole "legal union" requires an absurd amount of bureaucracy...

Local Grateful Dead cover band Phuncle Sam hosts a free show every Friday at the One Stop and K.A.W and I had to get our Dead on and check it out. The boys did not disappoint and we danced around to "Bertha", "Fire on the Mountain", and a like with a bunch of other Deadheads and it was great. Best way to cut loose after a long work week is a couple beers, good music, and good people...

Saturday:

Housework.

Off to Lowe's to get all manor of materials, tools, things we do or dont or might need but we might not, and "hey do we have this?" and "hey what about this?"

Its great fun to improve one's home but sometimes the preparation is harder than the task...

Before we even began we had to fuel up at our newest neighbor... the Whole Foods Market. Hotbar was calling our name and even The Goose got in on some Hotbar action...

"I can haz Whole Foods?"

I'll save you the boring details and how many times we had to go back to Lowe's but at the end of the day we ended up with a new sink faucet, a better bikecycle storage situation, and our guest bedroom is now free of wedding stuff. Plus I bought materials to build a shelf. Boom!

Sunday:

Woke up late with plans to hit the trail. Its been a long time since K.A.W and I did a big day hike. Its something we both have been sorely needing and a little woods time does a body good. Plus according to "The Great Compromise of 2014"... it was obligatory and binding.

We set out to do a classic trail up in Montreat, NC. The Greybeard Trail is an old standby for quick hikes that dont require much planning. We had hiked Greybeard many, many, times. This time however we'd be summiting Greybeard and returning via the West Ridge Trail aka "Seven Sisters",

Greybeard can put a hurting on you if your not careful. It starts out mellow enough but the closer you get to the top the steeper and rougher it gets. Its important to be prepared...

Dynamite Coffee is mandatory when summiting mountains...

approaching the summit...

We made it up fine (despite a near loss of The Goose when she pulled loose from her leash) and before long were basking in the mountainy goodness on the summit.

Heading back down the West Ridge Trail gives a unique vantage because your literally walking a knifes edge with Montreat to the left and the North Fork Reservoir to the right. Its pretty cool to have that much vertical fall on either side of you. The Bear and The Goose seemed pretty stoked to be out.in.it and so were their owners...

The Goose getting after it...

After it was all said and done we ended up around 8-9 miles and a couple thousand feet of elevation gain. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday...

Plus I got to try out my "seasonal socks"

...if Wal-Mart can put out Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving then so can I...